Quality-Skill Matrix

A Skills Matrix is one of the most simple, but highly effective, tools available to assess training needs. It is easily reviewed and updated, and presents the skills of team members in a single chart.

A Skills Matrix will help you to: • Review the skills and competences required for roles within the team • Assess training needs • Identify gaps in skills within the team • Build commitment to the development of new skills. Steps in preparing a Skills Matrix: 1.Identify the job roles in your team List your team members in the left-hand column of the blank Performa. Identify up to 8 key tasks or roles that your team must fulfill to be effective and achieve its goals. It may help to use the following tips: • What are the main things that individuals in the team have to be able to do?” • Refer to Job Descriptions for the team. • Use KRA to help compile the key skills required to operate in a wide range of business areas. • Consider new tasks and skills that may be required of your team in the near future. • If it becomes too complicated, break the job roles down into some key areas, and create a Skills Matrix for each. 2. Coding and standards of performance -Another option is to rate the skill level of the individuals with a coding system: -Can complete the task -Can complete the task to the required standard. -Complete the task to the required standard, in the required amount of time. -Could do all of the above and train others. 3. Assess the requirement for on-the-job training -You are now in a position to see what requirements you have for new skills to achieve your team objectives. -You can update training as it is completed by each individual and keep track of progress. -The maximum number of people required to be able to complete a skill may vary, and will affect your requirement for on-the-job training. Point to be remembered -To avoid any unnecessary duplication of skills ,use column to show the maximum number of people requiring this skill. -Review this number with your team regularly, and according to changing circumstances. -To update the Skills Matrix regularly. This is a dynamic document that may change due to changes in priority, personnel, time of year. -To incorporate a review of the matrix into monthly team meetings. -To gain commitment to training and development by keeping the team involved in updating the matrix and assessing needs.

One liners - Definitions

1. Cigarette: A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other.**********2. Love Affairs: Something like cricket where one-day internationals are more popular than a 5 day test match.**********3. Marriage: It's an agreement in which the man loses his bachelor's degree and the woman gains her master's.********** 4. Divorce: Future tense of marriage. **********5. Lecture: An art of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of students without passing through "the minds of either".**********6. Conference: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.**********7. Compromise: The art of dividing a cake in? such a way that everybody believes, she got the biggest piece.**********8. Tears: The hydraulic force by which the masculine will-power is defeated by feminine water-power.**********9. Dictionary: A place where divorce comes before marriage and success before work.**********10. Conference Room: A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everyone disagrees later on.**********11. Ecstasy: A feeling when you feel you are going to feel a feeling you have never felt before.**********12. Classic: A book which people praise but do not read.**********13. Smile: A curve that can set a lot of things straight.**********14. Office: A place where you can relax from the strenuous home life.**********15. Yawn: The only time some married men get to open their mouth.**********16. Etc. : A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.**********17. Committee: Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.**********18. Experience: The name men give to their mistakes.**********19. Atom Bomb: An invention to end all inventions. **********

Carnatic Music Lovers

Hi Friends, www.sangeethapriya.org This is the very useful site which is actually a feast to the Carnatic Lovers. they have uploaded the songs artistewise which is very user friendly. Enjoy...Yaam Petra Inbam ivayyyagam peruga...

Overdue tech

After years of waiting for these promising technologies, we think they're still far from mainstream. WiMax: Back in 2003, WiMax was heralded as the ultimate solution to the world's connectivity problems, capable of covering an entire city with ubiquitous broadband. WiMax today, however, is little more than an IT backbone for long-distance line-of-sight wide-area networks, largely because it's not very effective for the kinds of mobile devices that most people use for wireless Internet service. The basic technology of WiMax may yet evolve as part of future 4G cellular networks, but that's still a long way off. IPTV: Oh, how we've hungered for the video nirvana that IPTV has been promising. But while Verizon's FiOS TV and AT&T's U-Verse are finally rolling out, they've yet to produce the amazing lineup of HD channels, on-demand shows, integrated gaming, and digital voice calling the companies claimed would come, and they're still anything but ubiquitous. Meanwhile, digital cable has evolved enough to take some of the wind out of IPTV's sails. RFID: If early predictions were to be believed, today you would be walking through the grocery store filling up your cart as tiny radio frequency identification (RFID) tags announced the contents of the cart and an RFID-enabled credit card automatically paid the bill. Ummm, nope. The biggest holdup has come from the very companies attempting to roll out the technology, with industry infighting over standardization keeping RFID on the shelf. Virtual reality: Second Life boasts a 3D space in which users can buy and sell property, create objects, and socialize, but its relatively crude graphics still feel more virtual than real. Virtual reality as folks imagined it in the 1990s isn't likely to emerge until someone invents a wearable display that people will actually wear. At least we have "World of Warcraft".

Knowing Where to Tap...

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He nspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom. Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars. "What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!" So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill." The man sent a bill that read: Tapping with a hammer ........................ $ 2.00 Knowing where to tap ............................ $ 9998.00 Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

Mentors

Did you know that most Mentors have Mentors themselves, as they know that however good they are they could still do better?
"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you"- bob Proctor
Tony Robbins says that most people just drift through life as though they were floating down a river in a barrel, happy when the river current is gentle, helpless when they hit the rapids. You have to make sure you are directing the movie of your own life, you have to forward plan, develop strategies, get those LONG-TERM things done, not just firefight daily problems. It's tough to give priority to long-term projects eg studying for an exam which is a year away, paying for a pension which is 30 years away, progressing your dream project which is forever bobbing away on your horizon.
How can you counter this:- 1) Create a written Business (Time) Plan for your Project 2) Plan what daily or weekly time you will allocate 3) Put a checklist on your wall to ensure you complete these tasks 4) Detail the mini-rewards you will promise yourself when you complete an item 5) Find a colleague/friend (not easy) or hire a mentor who will hold you accountable
Mentors sometimes known as life coaches help you to rationalise your project(s), help you to decide a plan and a timetable then gently hold you accountable. Good mentors guide you without you ever being aware of it, however in fact mentoring mainly works because you make sure you reach your targets because it is embarrassing to say you've made no progress. There is also peer-mentoring where two Success Seekers mentor each other, the great of advantage of this is that it's free, disadvantage they likely have little experience, the real problem is finding one!
Make a list of all your long-term projects Consider which of the steps above you could complete now Think about whether Mentoring/Peer Mentoring would be useful to you

Give Money Away

"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do." - Helen Keller
Many of the ideas you will find in the Great Success Classics will seem strange or even odd when you first meet them. Here's one of those principles if you want to succeed you have to GIVE AWAY MONEY. That's a tough one to swallow, the way it appears to work is that you attract good Karma. Now the more cynical might be more interested to know that eBay (learnt at eBay University) can prove from their statistics that eBayers who offered items for sale with a percentage donated to charity had a very significant boost to the sales of their other items. What you will also notice as you become more organised and ACTUALLY get round to sending thank you notes, or giving little unexpected extra services to friends, relations and businesses you deal with is that you much more back in return. Now is that Karma or just obvious!
Think of all the little services you could render to people in your circle, and actually do them. Don't expect any benefit but just be pleasantly surprised.

Procrastination

Margaret Thatcher said, "Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it is when you've had everything to do, and you've done it."
There are many ways of tackling procrastination none seem to work when you most need it. I will suggest a brutal solution, make yourself so busy that you just don't get time to think about whether you can procrastinate. Where in fact you bounce from job to job, and squeeze in other tasks in between.
Think about times when you got things done and felt that pleasure of resolving problems, try and analyse why you were so resourceful then and not at other times.

Health is Wealth

"If by gaining knowledge (or wealth) we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands." --John Locke
"If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health." --Hippocrates
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." --Thomas Edison
Many of the Success Gurus give health a VERY high priority, imagine you are successful and finally buy your dream home overlooking the beach don't you want to be healthy enough to enjoy it? The best information we have is that lots of fresh vegetables and fruit are good for us. There is a product called green drink which balances your alkalinity, but smoothies are much more fun to drink. Smoothies contain massive amounts of fruit and are delightful to drink (should be available in your local supermarket). Remember being successful is not just confined to m0ney making, you should find that you becoming naturally more active as you start participating more actively in the lives of your friends, family and community. Eating properly and being more active should help you to keep your weight down without wasting all that energy dieting. One of your rewards for achieving a mini-goal should be to go for a spin on your bike to a coffee shop, hey and try and pick a coffee shop that's a bit further away!
Try and audit your health, are you eating a balanced diet, are you getting enough exercise, do you sleep well and wake up refreshed? Do you feel right in yourself. Decide on a small improvement that you can make to your health today. See health as a long term investment in yourself .

Do the Most Important Thing First

Successful people make a HABIT of doing things they don't like to do! Mike Litman
Millionaire steel magnate Andrew Carnegie once paid a consultant $64,000 for advice. The consultant gave Carnegie two ideas: Write down what you have to do today and DO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FIRST. In actual fact this story was the other way round. The consultant said I will give you some advice, and you pay me what you think it is worth, the $64,000 subsequently offered being at that time a fortune. If you can make yourself do this then you've won the battle and can leave this course. What happens to most people is the opposite they start doing the trivial painless tasks, then just as they get to the point where then can finally face doing the important task they get blown off course by that urgent request or emergency. This is one of the key reasons why they don't ever get to start their dream project.
Do your list, prioritise the list, then steel yourself and actually do the nasty top priority job. Make this a habit and see how good it feels!

Positive thinking

Is your glass half-empty or half-full? How you answer this age-old question may reflect your outlook on life and whether you're optimistic or pessimistic.

In fact, studies show that these personality traits —optimism and pessimism — can affect how well you live and even how long you live.

Need an attitude adjustment? Find out how to reduce your stress by halting negative thoughts and practicing positive self-talk.

Be positive: Live longer, live healthier

Self-talk is the endless stream of thoughts that run through your head every day. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your outlook on life is likely pessimistic. If your thoughts are mostly positive, you're likely an optimist.

Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information.

Researchers continue to explore the effects of optimism on health. The health benefits optimism may provide are:

• Decreased stress
• Greater resistance to catching the common cold
• A sense of well-being and improved health
• Reduced risk of coronary artery disease
• Breathing easier if you have chronic obstructive lung disease, such as emphysema
• Improved coping ability for women with high-risk pregnancies
• Living longer
• Better coping skills

It's unclear why optimists experience these health benefits. But one theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the effects of stress on your body.

Getting into the State: Breathing Exercises

At several points in the day, try simply closing your eyes and taking a deep breath.Turn your attention inward and remember whatever it is you need to, and as you let your breath out exhale all your tension and concerns. David Kundtz
Rebuilding yourself for Success can at times be emotionally stressful, in any case as you start succeeding you will certainly enter new unfamiliar areas. When this causes you anguish, you will find that deep breathing will bring you relief. Sometimes however you can feel unenergetic and demotivated deep-Breathing can help get yourself "into the state"
Just practice (discretely) pumping up your oxygen with rapid deep breaths, feel your energy levels rise and your mood improve.

Manifestation

All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about face, which turns us from failure to success.
Some believe that you can achieve a successful outcome, just by imagining it or believing it strongly enough (Napoleon Hill). Sceptics might choose to see manifestation as advanced positive thinking, i.e you are so confident something is going to happen that you brush aside the difficulties that might previously have flummoxed you.
Start training your Manifestation abilities. Decide that you will find an item of clothing that you will like, decide that you will find a parking place, decide that you will win your squash game. When you think about it what can be wrong with thinking this way.